Tuesday, June 23, 2015

A friend on the BLE forums shared an excel template for plotting your weight, so I've been having fun playing with that. Here is my 4.5 year history:

The green triangles are pre-BLE, blue diamonds are BLE (Feb. 25, 2015 to present), and the red squares are my fictional future starting on July 9, when I reach goal weight, if I continue on my present course. You can see my weight gain accelerated over time! That was due to going off plan more and more as time went on. My eating was definitely out of control. Here is a zoom of the BLE portion of my journey:

After the initial faster weight loss (I was on vacation so I have a two week gap between the beginning point on Feb. 25 at 157 lbs and March 11 where you start to see lots of dots), it stabilized at a rate of 1.1 lbs/week. According to the trend, I should reach my goal weight on July 9. Then I will start my "maintenance dance" (currently the fictional red squares), if all goes well!

Does it sound boring? I really like it. For one thing, you vary the beans and the nuts and the fruit and the veggies every day and every meal. Once corn season arrives in mid-July, I will modify the plan to include starchy veggies! I should be at my goal weight then but even if not, I will eat corn!

1. Soak the cashews and dates covered in water for 1 hour or overnight. (If you forgot to soak, you can do a quick load by covering them with waterm microwaving them until hot, and let set for a minute or two).
2. Strain the juice from the tomatoes and use that to cook with the onion and carrot and red bell pepper until soft. You'll probably need some water too, but don't use too much. I usually use a pressure cooker, set for 3 minutes.
3. Blend the cashews and dates in their water on high until creamy. Then add the tomatoes and blend again until creamy. Then add the onions and carrots and blend again. Add the salt. Add water if needed for desired thickness. By this point, my blender container is about 50 oz full which is just about right. You can add a little more liquid if you want, say 1/2 cup. Then add the herbs and blend just until they are chopped.
4. This makes 4 servings, each about 1.75 cups.

About this blog

I'm sharing my experiences on what I prefer to eat. I am similar to Mad-Eye Moody (a Harry Potter character) in that, for the most part, I only eat food I prepare myself. How else can I avoid added salt, oil, sugar, refined grains, and animal products? As someone who doesn't like to be the center of attention, I try to do this as discreetly as possible. But I think they're on to me. Fortunately, none of them know about my blog.